Meet the Crag Rats: Oregon mountain rescue team is still going strong after 100 years episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 19, 2026 · 17 MIN

Meet the Crag Rats: Oregon mountain rescue team is still going strong after 100 years

from Peak Northwest · host The Oregonian/OregonLive

If you get injured on Mount Hood or lost in the Columbia River Gorge, odds are good that a Crag Rat will find you. The Crag Rats are one of the nation’s oldest mountain rescue organizations, first formed in 1926. On this week’s episode of the Peak Northwest podcast, we speak with Christopher Van Tilburg, a mountain rescue doctor with the Crag Rats and author of a new book about the organization, “Crisis on Mount Hood: Stories from 100 Years of Mountain Rescue.” Here are some highlights from this week’s show: How the Crag Rats perform their rescues. What it takes to be on the mountain rescue team. The storied 100-year history behind the group. How did they get the name Crag Rats anyway? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 19, 2026

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Meet the Crag Rats: Oregon mountain rescue team is still going strong after 100 years

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